Saturday, November 19, 2011

Waco – Brian Scott, a candidate for Precinct 3 McLennan County Commissioner in the race to replace Joe Mashek, says the incumbent has attacked him falsely.

Mr. Scott is an employee of Insurors of Texas, a Waco brokerage that writes employee benefits coverage for local governments, and did so for McLennan County for many years. He came to work there in February after working in the Congressional offices of former Representative Chet Edwards.

Mr. Scott says that is false and he produced papers to prove his point. According to a request for proposals, the McLennan County Commissioners' Court awarded the employee group health plans to Scott & White as a self-insured party using that organization as a third party administrator on July 19 and 26.

Mr. Scott told The Legendary that he filed to run for the office much earlier in the year. He made his treasurer's report as a candidate for Commissioner to the County Elections Office in May.

Both he and Mr. Mashek are natives of West. “I feel real sorry that he had to attack me that way,” said Mr. Scott.

In favor of a county civil service commission

In his plans for election to the office, he said he very much favors keeping local control of the County Jail and using employees of the County Sheriff's Office to staff the facilities.

In fact, he would very much prefer that the jailers and other officers be subject to a Civil Service Commission that would regulate their hiring, qualifications, and other administrative details of their employment.

On top of that, he would like to return to a customer service-based philosophy of dealing with constitutents who need the county's services with roads, health, records or any of the other thousand and one functions that county government performs for its citizens.

“Working with people is kind of what made me want to run for commissioner,” he said. “I could have gone back in the car business.”